How Yoga and Meditation Can Support Folks with Endometriosis

Dustienne Miller, Your Pace Yoga; Flourish Physical Therapy

Child's Pose

Sphinx Pose

Banana Pose

Isn’t it maddening when people tell you to breathe and relax more to help ease the pain associated with endometriosis and pelvic floor dysfunction? If it were only that easy.

I’m Dustienne - a pelvic health physical therapist and yoga teacher. I have also had experience with debilitating dysmenorrhea - vomiting trying to get home, experiencing the pain that makes you rub your feet together...you get the picture.

Let me be honest - breathing during this time did not make my pain go away or prevent me from a vomiting extravaganza.

It did help to have a strategy. It was useful for me to have a place in my mind to go to when I would get so frustrated because I needed to stay home and miss out on work, travel, or family time. Training my mind with a meditation practice offered me some solace during this time...and so did the Gilmore Girls ;).

In my experience, my body would tighten secondarily to the primary issue of pain, cramping, diarrhea and vomiting. After the flare would end, I was left with multiple areas of my body gripping and hanging on for dear life. My pelvic floor would be super tight, which you know can set you up for constipation. My back would be stuck in flexion so that I would not be able to stand up straight.

Working with the breath, gentle yoga postures, mindfulness, and supporting the nervous system are strategies that helped me and hopefully will help you.

Supporting your nervous system
Think of putting coins into a piggy bank. Each little bit you put in adds up. Some days you might need to take a bigger withdrawal than other days.

MeditationMeditation is not for everyone, but those who enjoy it find it super helpful. I’ve had the pleasure of attending Tara’s workshops and she is an absolute delight. I love her basic body scan: https://www.tarabrach.com/meditation-basic-body-scan/

Supporting your nervous system by attending to your senses can be helpful and enjoyable. The experience of pain and the stress of not being able to attend to your responsibilities can trigger a fight-or-flight response. Nurturing yourself with a restorative yoga practice can be helpful, especially in the week before your symptoms escalate (if that is predictable).

Visualization
When people experience pain, especially deep pain near the organs, the body hugs itself by tightening around where the pain is felt. This is called the viscero-somatic reflex. We can use visualization techniques to encourage the body to soften.

I find asking my patients to soften the pelvic floor is a little ethereal. If you ask someone to contract and relax their upper traps (just above your shoulders), it’s pretty easy to do, especially with the visual feedback of a mirror. The pelvic floor muscles are a little trickier to connect with since we aren’t usually looking at them!

Finding the bony landmarks of your pelvis to orient where the pelvic floor muscles are can be helpful. Find your sitz bones, pubic bone in the front, and tailbone in the back. This diamond shape houses the pelvic floor muscles.  When you inhale, your pelvic floor muscles lengthen towards your feet. If you experience pelvic pain, your muscles will probably be on the tighter side and have a harder time lengthening on your inhalation. By utilizing the visual cues, you use your mind body connection to encourage the lengthening. 

A little research
For the scientifically-minded folks, there was a study done in Brazil that revealed yoga reduced pain and improved the quality of life. It was a randomized control trial that looked at the use of hatha yoga to treat pain caused by endometriosis. The goal of the study was to evaluate chronic pelvic pain, menstrual patterns, and quality of life.

• Pain decreased in the group who practiced yoga.
• Quality of life improved, as documented by a participant questionnaire, was also statistically significant.
• The study demonstrates that yoga is an effective practice in reducing day-to-day chronic pelvic pain that one experiences with the diagnosis of endometriosis. 
• Using yoga as an aspect of a holistic treatment plan for endometriosis allows you to have a tool that is safe, portable, and effective in improving quality of life.

How does yoga help?

• Mobilizes the muscles that attach to the thorax and pelvis
• Mobilizes the fascia that surrounds the uterus, bladder and the GI tract
• Pranayama helps enhance the relationship between the breath and the pelvic floor (by using breath cues imagery for pelvic floor release and the physiological relationship between the diaphragm and the pelvic floor)
• Rebalances the fight-or-flight response

Postures to try 
Here are a few of the many posture options to try. See how they feel in your body!

Reclined Goddess Pose
I love restorative yoga postures for a number of reasons, but especially because of the chance for us to rebalance the autonomic nervous system. The sympathetic nervous system (fight-or-flight) gets stimulated with persistent pain, and activating the parasympathetic nervous system can help reduce pain. You can create restorative postures with pillows, bolsters, blankets, blocks...whatever is around. I have found creating a restorative Child’s Pose or Puppy Pose was helpful when I was bedridden and wanted to shift my nervous system.

Child’s Pose
When people are flaring they will usually not want their abdomen to be on stretch. Child’s Pose is helpful for calming and grounding, lengthening the fascia in the back body, and softening the fascia in the front.

Banana Pose
Try this posture to open up the side body and abdominal wall. It offers sidebending at the thoracolumbar junction (where the mid and low back meet) where the diaphragm inserts. Breathing into the ribs, especially on the elongated side is a nice additional benefit.

Sphinx Pose
When you are not flared up, offering extension into the low back will allow your abdominal wall and fascia surrounding your organs to lengthen. Sphinx pose is a nice place to start with extension poses, unless that is too much. Click here for my favorite extension progression.

I hope this blog post offers you some ideas that help make your journey a bit more easeful. I wish you peace in your mind, your heart, and your body.

Dustienne Miller, PT, is a physical therapist practicing in Boston, MA. She own Flourish Physical Therapy and Your Pace Yoga. A supporter of The Endometriosis Summit right from our start, Dustienne will conclude Endo Summit Workshop with a guided meditation and yoga program. She will also help the Town Meeting crowd find their breath in a group activity. Ticket are now on sale for The Endometriosis Summit